The Pursuit of Happiness

I had a difficult time imagining spending my life with another woman. It's not that I couldn't love someone else, I just didn't want to. Even coming home didn't feel quite the same. It was lifeless, for lack of a better term. It no longer served it's purpose, and that too would be something I'd eventually walk away from.

I will not wish you a happy New Year, because in truth you will not have an entire year of happiness. Things will happen that make you sad -- a breakup, a death, the loss of a job or worse. That's okay, because it is the sad times that allow us to appreciate the happy ones.

I met a wonderful woman this week who has been married for 58 years and her advice to me in life and love was, "Make the most of the good things and the least of the bad things." This is now my plan for 30 and beyond. Cheers

In her new book Emotional Obesity, Laura Coe argues that our culture teaches us from a young age to "get over" our feelings. The result is that we end up carrying their excess weight around with us throughout our lives.

In many of the recent articles on millennials, there is a critical narrative that has emerged and has lead to what I believe is the beginning of a cultural zeitgeist, and that narrative is about purpose.

Given how much time I spend wandering around consumed by how stellar life will be once I lose the last five pregnancy pounds, get my book written, get the baby to sleep through the night, that to realize quite suddenly that I am happy right now is miraculous. It stops me in my tracks.

What is unique to modern America is that our hopefulness comes with a price tag that no other culture has ever been willing to pay. It comes at the expense of reality and the medium of exchange is our spirit.